[louieatienza]

Sorry guys, it's been a while. I had a few priorities I needed to tend to, but I'm back...

It started out as upgrading parts to my original Solsylva machine. I ended up rebuilding everything! I am still using the steppers and leadscrew bearings from my old machine. Here's the YouTube link:

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBm4LWCNMF4"]YouTube - New Home Made CNC Router, Upgraded Parts![/nomedia]
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owgIoN9pKdc"]YouTube - New Home Made CNC Router, In Action![/nomedia]

For the frame and gantry, I used 1" black phenolic. Believe it or not, I cut all the pieces with my old Solsylva machine (the burn marks tell the story!) But I had difficulties adjusting the feed/router speed, where my machine wasn't ridgid enough for the speed I needed. It is now .

For the X and Y axis linear rails, I used ROLLON 43-series tracks and trucks. On both axes, I used a T in conjunction with a U rail. The U rail allows for any misalignment, and the T track handles most of the side-to-side load, as well as the leadscrew.

I used roller skate bearings for the Z axis, but integrated them into the carriage sides. This made fitting and assembling the carriage more difficult since there are 6 bearings a side, but I feel it's stiffer than the normal 4 bearing configuration. I adjusted the preload by sizing up the router plate, and the outer bearings are adjustable.

For the X axis, I stayed with the dual leadscrew/timing belt configuration. Because my frame is now slightly narrower, my belt was too long, and ordering a new one right now was out of the question. So I redesigned the stepper mount, where I have now 4 idlers holdoing the belt in a "W" shape. The belt tension is adjusted by raising the stepper plate.

I liked the 24 x 32 cutting area I had with the old machine, so that remains the same. To achieve that, I lowered the side rails all the way to the table, and raised the gantry sides. I could still bkock the machine up if need be, though I think having the frame direct to the table adds more stability. I also tapped holes in the phenolic and assenbled everything with bolts, so everything is tighter now. I hope with the added weight, I'll get evevn more improvement in cut quality (though I did successfully cut aluminum with the Solsylva build.) The gantry assembly with the router is about 60 pounds, maybe more.

I also brought the monitor, keyboard, trackball, and card reader to the top. Prevoiusly they were all in the shelf, and I had to make like a troll to access them!

I'll take pics tonight... Need a new wasteboard, then I can start cutting! Thanks for looking!

[louieatienza]

OK here's a shot of the whole machine...

[louieatienza]

A shot of the gantry and Z carraige assembly. Originally I was going to use steel tube for the linear bearing rails, but opted with the ROLLON rails instead. Also because of this I shelled out the gantry beam to shave weight, but in hindsight I could have left it solid. To avoid those chunks of phenolic jamming up my machine and wrecking my router, I pocketed each hole out, which took some time!

[louieatienza]

Closeup of the Z bearing assembly. Four bearings go through the carriage sides, and the other 8 guide the rails front to back. I made the carriage as square as I could, then cut the router plate slightly oversize to preload the sides. The front bearing is adjustable.

[louieatienza]

Here's the Z stepper and mount. The stepper base actually sits in a pocket I machined out. Material is 1/2" chopping board! The 4 aluminum tubes are set into the plastic, and everything is bolted down tight.

[louieatienza]

The Y stepper mount is similar, though right now it doubles as a holddown for the stepper wires!

[Jesse B]

Very nice, I always love home-made guitars. Your machine seems to cut quite nicely.

Where did you get the belt/pulleys for your X axis if you don't mind me asking? I'm thinking of using one for a design I'm playing around with as well...

[louieatienza]

Very nice, I always love home-made guitars. Your machine seems to cut quite nicely.

Where did you get the belt/pulleys for your X axis if you don't mind me asking? I'm thinking of using one for a design I'm playing around with as well...

Thanks! I used to do these all manually - plane boards down, rough cut with bandsaw, clean up with router and home-made template, beltsand, etc... - now I do the surfacing on the machine as well (I have about 1/2" of clearance after installing my 2" long 1/2" router bit! What once took me over 3 hours takes about 12-15 minutes of machine time, not including set-up.

I get my belt and pulleys here: Precision Mechanical Components Timing Belts Pulleys Spur Gears Couplings Bearings Sprockets Retaining Rings Brakes Helical Gears Clutches Universal Joints I can't remember which ones I got but they were the least expensive (L?) I'm using a 1:1 drive ratio but depending on your stepper/screw you may try a different ratio.

[louieatienza]

Here's the second body cut. I just have to do the belly cut. Evevntually I will do these on the machine as well, but for now I enjoy doing it by hand.

This will get white/black/white binding. It is quilt maple over sapele. The second image shows the quilt, wetted with xylene to bring the grain out. It looks like yellow waves in a yellow ocean!

[louieatienza]

This is another one I did earlier, in durly redwood and basswood (super light!)

[louieatienza]

Another aluminum test cut. This time it's foe a keychain for my fiance. I'm thinking I could go faster on the feedrate, though I wasn't sure if the end mill could take it. Also I do get a little bit of backlash from the Lovevjoy couplers I used, but overall I'm happy with the results. What I'm not happy with is the cheap Ryobi v-bit I used for the v-carve. It actually does not come to a point, so the v-carve is not perfect. Not bad for MDF, but I need to get a better bit!

[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2Ovpt7XQeo"]YouTube - Home Made CNC Router Milling Aluminum, Celtic Cross Part 1: V-Carve![/nomedia]
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOPxB6yX_SI"]YouTube - Home Made CNC Router Milling Aluminum, Celtic Cross Part 2: Profile![/nomedia]

This piece is about 3" in diamter...

[Jesse B]

Yeah, I can imagine that this machine saves you a serious amount of time

Have you noticed any issues with backlash? Or does having them tensioned eliminate this for the most part?

[louieatienza]

Yeah, I can imagine that this machine saves you a serious amount of time

Have you noticed any issues with backlash? Or does having them tensioned eliminate this for the most part?

Jesse... I still have a little bit of backlash, due to the Lovevjoy L couplers I am using. I have new couplers coming in, which should mitigate that. Other than that, all axes seem tight; the ROLLON trucks take a bit of time to set up right (you can preload the crap out of them) but it was worth it. Also, I think the rails ended up being more structural than the phenolic!

What I DID do in the interim was lower my accel/decel in Mach3, from 30 to 15, which seems to help. I also lowered the rapids from 250 to 175 (though I have had it set as high as 400!) so the table doesn't shake uncontrollably! I guess a new table is in the order.

My plans are to make a smaller desktop machine for metal cutting, so I can use this one primarily for wood and plastics. For that I may start a build log... but I will wait till spring to start...

Another thing I notice... when I do a outside profile cut in VCarve, and specify climb cutting, the outside edge of my part is actually getting cut with a convevntional cut. I was wondering why the outside cuts aren't as clean as my pockets or inside profiles. Will have to look into this!

[louieatienza]

Example: here's a nametag I made for my friend's daughter's room. The inside pockets come out clean, and the cleanup pass climb cuts. When I cut the outside edge, it travels in a conventional manner...

Still with the tighter machine, everything cuts cleaner overall. The bottom of the pockets are nice and smooth (guess I got the Z axis aligned well!)

The tops and bottoms of the "S" near the serifs are leass than 1/32" thickness, and .166" deep, so I guess the backlash isn't that horrible!

[RomanLini]

That's some beautiful guitar woodwork Louie!

That quilt maple strat looks amazing.

[louieatienza]

That's some beautiful guitar woodwork Louie!

That quilt maple strat looks amazing.

Thanks Roman! It's not even sanded yet, that's fresh off the press. Sanding it smooth to 400 should make the grain even more 3-dimensional looking! We're going to use aniline dyes, in a four stage staining process, that should make the figure look like ripples in the ocean. Basically I would start with a dark blue, sand completely off, then amber to add a little warmth, then a lighter shade of ble, and finally use an airbrush with the darker blue to make a subtle "burst", yet still transparent. The center will look almost aquamarine with the amber and light blu

I wish I had started down the CNC path sooner; this saves so much in terms of hand labor. Of course here is still some manual labor, but now it's more devoted to detail and finish!

I can't sand it down yet as I'm waiting for binding material. Hopefully soon!

[Rotax91]

Hi louie, your work is awesome. I love the celctic font stuff you did. When I get mine machine done, I'd like to play around with this. Which celctic font did you order. Their order page has a bunch of stuff listed. The first 4 things on the order page are Outlined, Filled, Inverse & 3D. Did you purchase all of them?

Thanks & keep up the good work!

[louieatienza]

Hi louie, your work is awesome. I love the celctic font stuff you did. When I get mine machine done, I'd like to play around with this. Which celctic font did you order. Their order page has a bunch of stuff listed. The first 4 things on the order page are Outlined, Filled, Inverse & 3D. Did you purchase all of them?

Thanks & keep up the good work!

Thanks! I ordered a full package, though I think for the majority of CNC stuff, if you had to buy one, buy filled. Because if you want inverse, just draw a border around everything (see bottom.) If you want outline, select everything (after converting to curves and weldng) and create an inline. Looking back, I would have done just that. The sample packs, and circle pack, are very helpful as you could just change the font to regular text and really see how these are constructed, and how the patterns emerge.

Stay tuned, as the next time, I'll use better material other than MDF...

Thanks again, I have a video of the cutting action in my YouTube channel: [nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ0I-XYP1SA"]YouTube - DIY CNC V-Carving Celtic Knot MDF, Part 1[/nomedia]. I start a little slow then ramp the speed up as I check how the bit is cutting.

[Rotax91]

Hi again Louie, thanks for the info on celctic fonts. Your work is so inspiring and makes me want to get mine done really soon. In regards to the cool looking gear you made, you said you used vectric to generate the gcode. What did you use to draw it? I really like the looks of it.

[louieatienza]

Hi again Louie, thanks for the info on celctic fonts. Your work is so inspiring and makes me want to get mine done really soon. In regards to the cool looking gear you made, you said you used vectric to generate the gcode. What did you use to draw it? I really like the looks of it.

Weclome, though the Celtic fonts were actually brought to my attention from CarveOne, so I can't take credit.

In the Woodworking forum there is a thread on wooden clock gears, I believe you can find some of the files there...